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A lovely cover from library sale book.

Library Book Sale Haul

I picked this up for a pound in a charity shop in London. A coterie of French intellectuals & artists are all somewhat miserable. No one is married to the person they are in love with, and even those that find love, know it will be brief and unsatisfying. Happiness is ever elusive. It felt very French. Indeed, almost a parody of very French! While my eyes did roll, I liked Sagan's simple, stripped-down prose. I still want to read Bonjour Tristesse

I loved a few parts of this, and overall it is very well done. I thought I was done reading Houellebecq but I‘m glad I decided to read this one too. There are some great themes he works through.

Superfluous cat content at the request of @RaeLovesToRead

Linus and Sophie don't know what to think about this one, and neither do I. My understanding of Surrealism was pretty shallow, so it was interesting getting acquainted with the philosophical underpinnings of the movement. I'm partial to the idea of creating chance encounters, of finding meaning in coincidence and of heightened engagement with the world around you. Still, it...

He observed again the complex motif composed by the strips of flesh spread across the floor of the room. What he felt was less disgust than a sort of general pity for the entire earth, for mankind, which can, in its heart, give birth to such horrors.

While I was writing this book, my attention was immediately caught by any news item... attributed to the year 1952.... I felt that these events brought home the reality of that far-away year and my identity as a child. In his novel Fires on the Plain, published in 1952, the Japanese author Shohei Ooka writes: 'All this may just be an illusion but all the same I cannot question the things I have experienced. Memories too belong in that category'

To be like everyone else was people's universal ambition, the ultimate dream. Those who were different were thought to be eccentric or even deranged. The dogs in our neighbourhood were all called Rover or Spot.

In this novella, based on a true story, Éric Faye recounts beautifully and poetically how the main character, a single man in his fifties, discovered a woman was using his place when he was absent...
The themes of solitude, intrusion, and meaning of life are very well explored despite the brievety of the book.